As I’ve made clear on plenty of occasions, I’m a Pearl Jam fan. I have been for a long time. While initially I got into the band because there was a chick in my honors English class that wore long underwear under her shorts and made my teenage libido run wild, I’ve long since forgotten what’s-her-name.



But I’ll never give up on Pearl Jam.



Even as the band (and, thus, this hack writer) ages, and slowly becomes a representation of past accomplishments more than future potential, Pearl Jam still holds a place in my heart. And I’m not just talking about Ten and Vs. here, folks. I’m talking about the whole Pearl Jam timeline — from Mookie Blaylock to their latest record with the avocado on the cover.



If you’re a fan of Pearl Jam — or, maybe just a fan of rock and roll posters — chances are you’re familiar with the work of the Ames Bros. A Seattle based design company run by Barry Ament (PJ bassist Jeff Ament’s brother) and his longtime buddy, Coby Schultz (the two grew up together in Montana before moving to Seattle) along with Brad Klausen, the Ames Bros are responsible for virtually every piece of Pearl Jam merch and every concert poster the band has signed off on.



It’s an impressive catalog, and one the Ames Bros are proud of. So proud, in fact, that they’ve made a book of their work for Pearl Jam – titled Ames Bros vs. Pearl Jam: 13 Years of Tour Posters — which was released last year. It’s a fantastic collection of some of the best rock posters of a generation — in a time when the art of crafting rock posters seems to have been sadly lost.



While the book is exciting, don’t get me wrong; what’s really exciting is a new exhibit of work from the book soon to be going on display at the Tacoma Public Library’s Handforth Gallery. Starting with a book (and, of course, poster) signing featuring both Barry Ament and Coby Schultz, beginning Thursday, Dec. 11, 82 pieces of the Ames Bros best work will be hanging on the walls of the TPL.



As far as exhibits at public libraries go, that’s about as cool as it gets.

“It’s actually something that we’ve been thinking about for quite a while. We’ve made a lot of posters for various bands throughout the last 13-14 years, and that volume of work started growing some time ago. It was our plan to one day do a book with all of our posters, which we’d still like to do. Luckily for us, Pearl Jam was just as dedicated to making a book as we were. This allowed us to focus our efforts into creating a book about our posters for Pearl Jam, which made sense considering they comprise probably 90 percent of our screen-printed rock posters. With the band’s involvement, it definitely took the book up a notch,” said Schultz and Ament in an e-mail interview with the Weekly Volcano.



“We wanted a way to archive all of this work as well as to offer some insight to our inspiration and thought process. The posters themselves have become highly collectible, and in the secondary market an often expensive item. This book would allow people to have all of them in one spot, if not hanging on their walls, at least in the pages of this book printed with accurate colors and very high quality. In essence we went about it the way we would any of our posters or other design projects, with the end goal of making the coolest thing we could. In that respect, we feel it was a success.



“We’ve got a lot to be proud of for sure,” Schultz and Ament continued, answering as one — a sure indication of the two designer’s partnership and shared vision. “Thinking back to college and even childhood, I’d say that we had visions of one day doing something cool, like jumping our bikes across the canal. I don’t think either one of us could’ve come up with a scenario that played out like this one. Even looking back five years, we probably couldn’t have guessed how the last five would’ve played out.”



Chances are, no one could have predicted it. That’s one of the great things about life.

And one of the great things about Pearl Jam is the band’s tour posters, which can now be widely seen thanks to the Ames Bros book, and — more importantly for Tacoma — thanks to the Tacoma Public Library’s exhibit which kicks off next Thursday.



It probably won’t be Drop in the Park — but it’ll be pretty damn cool nonetheless.



[Handforth Gallery, Ames Bros vs. Pearl Jam: 13 Years of Tour Posters, Dec. 11-Jan. 31 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday-Saturday, free, Tacoma Public Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5666]